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Thursday, April 30, 2015

March gets 5 Stars {Non-Fiction} {Graphic Novel}

I, like everyone else, are big fans of graphic novels. They are ridiculously fast reads, and the pictures are extra bonuses. However, March was the first biographical graphic novel, and I loved it. I give March by John Lewis 5 out of 5 stars.This autobiography almost read like an historical fiction in the sense that you learn something but you are also entertained; it definitely earns its 5 stars. The graphic novel format made it entertaining and perfect for a wide audience. Boys and girls in grades 8th and up will enjoy this book and won't complain if they have to read it for a school assignment in history or English class. Even the reluctant readers will enjoy this book.This graphic novel is a clean read with just a couple instances of language all used within context. March is an historical biography/memoir about John Lewis and his experience growing up in the south fighting peacefully for civil rights and to cease segregation. This is book 1 of 3, and you will probably be clamoring for the sequels. You might as well request them from the library all at the same time. Definitely request this book from the library. You'll love learning something new, and you'll enjoy every page in this quick read. Amazon had the following book review: "Congressman Lewis, with Michael D’Orso’s assistance, told his story most impressively in Walking with the Wind (1998). Fortunately, it’s such a good story—a sharecropper’s son rises to eminence by prosecuting the cause of his people—that it bears retelling, especially in this graphic novel by Lewis, his aide Aydin, and Powell, one of the finest American comics artists going. After a kicker set on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 1965 (the civil rights movement’s Bloody Sunday), the story makes January 20, 2009 (President Obama’s inauguration) a base of operations as it samples Lewis’ past via his reminiscences for two schoolboys and their mother, who’ve shown up early at his office on that milestone day for African Americans. This first of three volumes of Lewis’ story brings him from boyhood on the farm, where he doted over the chickens and dreamed of being a preacher, through high school to college, when he met nonviolent activists who showed him a means of undermining segregation—to begin with, at the department-store lunch counters of Nashville. Powell is at his dazzling best throughout, changing angle-of-regard from panel to panel while lighting each with appropriate drama. The kineticism of his art rivals that of the most exuberant DC and Marvel adventure comics—and in black-and-white only, yet! Books Two and Three may not surpass Book One, but what a grand work they’ll complete."

Are you a fan of graphic novels? This is most definitely my favorite historical graphic novel. Happy Autobiography Graphic Novel reading!